As part of the countdown to the 2012-13 college basketball season, Sporting News takes an analytical look at 17th-ranked Wisconsin:

REASONS TO BELIEVE

Big-game experience. The Badgers have reached the NCAA Tournament in 14 consecutive seasons. They’ve become one of the teams everyone expects to get there and win at least a couple of games, and that’s exactly what they’ve done their past two trips. Experience goes a long way, and because Wisconsin returns six players who played in all 36 games last season, the Badgers could be poised for another run like the one they made in 2000, when they lost in the Final Four.

Defense. The Badgers return four players who blocked at least 12 shots and four players who tallied at least 22 steals to a team that ranked first in the nation in scoring defense (53.2 points per game allowed) and 15th in field-goal percentage defense (38.9) a year ago.

Coach Bo Ryan. His swing offense has been called boring. True, it’s not flashy, but it sure gets the job done. His players are always interchangeable, and they will run the offense to perfection yet again this season.

REASONS TO WORRY

No Jordan Taylor. A physical guard, Taylor provided leadership—and a lot of minutes—for three seasons. He led the Badgers in scoring, assists and steals last season, and when the game was on the line, he was eager to take the big shot. Who will step up at crunch time, especially now that Taylor's replacement, Josh Gasser, is out for the season with a torn ACL, and what sort of ceiling does Wisconsin have without its top player from a year ago?

Shooting. Last season, Ryan had his worst shooting team in the past 10 years; the Badgers hit 42.5 percent from the floor (214th in the nation). Don’t expect that to get much better, either—Wisconsin returns largely the same cast of shooters.

Can a freshman be dependable? Ryan isn’t one to hand over a ton of minutes to a freshman, but Sam Dekker—ranked No. 13 in the class of 2012 by Rivals.com—should buck that trend. Still, not every freshman produces the way they do at Kentucky, especially in Ryan’s system. If the versatile Dekker is slow to adapt to the college game, the Badgers will suffer on the offensive end.

College Basketball 2012-13

IMPACT NEWCOMER

SF Sam Dekker, freshman. The 6-7 forward was the most decorated high schooler in the state of Wisconsin. He is athletic, can shoot from all over the court and can score points in bunches. He made the United States Under-18 team that won the FIBA Americas Championship this summer.

BOTTOM LINE

With Ryan at the helm, we’ve grown to expect the Badgers to simply plug in players, run their deliberate offense, frustrate opponents and win—and there’s little reason to believe they can’t do it again this season. Wisconsin must overcome the loss of its floor general—and now his replacement in Gasser—but this team handles significant departures as well as anyone. The Badgers continued winning in recent years after losing star players Marcus Landry, Trevon Hughes and Jon Leuer.